A Socialist Response to the Prison System

Because surveillance of communities and radical movements destroys them.

Because prisons produce private profit and warehouse surplus people.

Because there are more black men in prison today than were enslaved in 1850.

Because.

***KNOW THE SYSTEM***

Are you committed to fighting capitalism and racism right here in NYC? Come get an intensive overview of the mass incarceration system and the latest political developments – in city hall and in the movement – and how we can build progressive people power in our city.

SPEAKERS:

Robert Gangi - Police Reform Organizing Project

Gabriel Kilpatrick - NYC Democratic Socialists of America

***KNOW YOUR RIGHTS / COP WATCH***

How can you be a socialist ally for those targeted for police harassment on the street, particularly in low income communities of color, when you see it happening? How can you protect yourself and exercise your own rights when they come after you?

SPEAKERS/TRAINERS:

Bina Ahmad - National Lawyers Guild

Djibril Toure - Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

Judson Memorial Church is at 55 Washington Square South in Manhattan, but enter at 239 Thompson. Subway: N/R to 8th St, A/C/E/B/D/F/M to West 4th.

Lunch provided, children welcome.

Event is FREE. PLEASE RSVP BELOW.

LEARN HOW

What's going on with the policing and prison system?

What’s going on with the police union, Mayor De Blasio and the right-wing in NYC?

What is a socialist response?

What are your rights?

How can you help?

SPEAKER BIOS

Gangi served as Executive Director of the Correctional Association of New York for over 29 years and founded the Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP) in the spring of 2011. Gangi has been an activist, community organizer and public policy advocate in New York City for nearly 50 years. Also, he is a recognized expert on criminal justice and law enforcement issues with a particular focus on police and prison concerns.

Kilpatrick is a student at the City College of New York, where he founded a chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists, the student wing of DSA. He is also one of the two DSA representatives to the Resist Rikers coalition.

Ahmad is a social justice activist, human rights and animal rights attorney. Bina was a Legal Consultant to the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) New York City Chapter working on Occupy Wall Street criminal and civil cases, and is National Vice President to the NLG's National Chapter. She has lived and worked in Palestine with Al-Haq (the oldest Palestinian human rights NGO), and also worked with PETA, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Human Rights Watch. Currently, she is a public defender with the Legal Aid Society in Staten Island, New York.

Toure is a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and co-coordinator of the Peoples Self Defense Campaign, which seeks to address issues of police misconduct/abuse in central Brooklyn. His work has included conducting know your rights workshops/activities for the larger NYC community as well as organizing Copwatch, which is a volunteer based program aimed at observing & reducing illegal stop & frisk activity. Djibril was also one of the plaintiff’s in the Daniels v the City of New York which addressed the NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk and racial profiling.

Join DSA members Eric Brasure and Brendan Hamill to discuss the British film Pride (2014). It’s 1984, British coal miners are on strike, and a group of gays and lesbians in London bring the queer community together to support the miners in their fight. Based on the true story of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. The film is available for rent on YouTube, Amazon, and iTunes. 8 ET/7 CT/6 MT/5 PT.

Join DSA member and labor historian Susan Hirsch in discussing Union Maids(1976). Nominated for an Academy Award, this documentary follows three Chicago labor organizers (Kate Hyndman, Stella Nowicki, and Sylvia Woods) active beginning in the 1930s. The filmmakers were members of the New American Movement (a precursor of DSA), and the late Vicki Starr (aka Stella Nowicki) was a longtime member of Chicago DSA and the Chicago Women's Liberation Union. It’s available free on YouTube, though sound quality is poor. 8ET/7CT/6MT/5PT.

DSA was concerned to find out that the company that provides our website and online organizing infrastructure, NationBuilder, had as a client the Trump campaign and other right-wing candidates. Progressives built this kind of infrastructure and tools for digital organizing and we have now lost that organizing edge. We are moving to identify other options for a CMS/CRM. As an under-resourced, member funded organization, this move will take time for us to carry out, but it is an important statement for us to make.